End of the Rainbow
by exitthequitters
Summary: Rory Flanagan may be the new kid at McKinley but he isn't the only one who is invisible.


**End of the Rainbow – Chapter 1**

To say Rory Flanagan was having a bad day would be an understatement. Rory was having a bad month. It's not easy packing your life away, moving to a new country without your family and started a new school were you don't know anyone, but Rory had and it was starting to take a toll on his usually happy demeanor.

America was supposed to be a melting pot. A place where different cultures can together and everyone was accepted. That's what Rory had been told. That he would make friends quickly and have a great time. None of that had happened yet.

But Rory had no intentions of giving up yet. He refused to leave America the same way he came. He came to America looking for change and adventure and he wasn't leaving without it. Rory just hoped his adventure would hurry up and find him.

"How is your first day going, Rory?" His mom asked. He had called his mom every day since he had arrived in America. He missed her more than he thought he would.

"Oh, it's great! I've made lots of friends already! Everyone is so nice here, just like you said!" Rory answered. He didn't have the heart to tell her that the other students only talked to him to insult him.

Rory tried to fake happiness but he knew his mother would be able to see right through it. Before she had a chance to call him out on his obvious lie, someone on the hockey team shoved him into the row of lockers. Again. He waited for the jock to walk away before going after his phone.

"Mom?" Rory asked. He sighed when he didn't get an answer and put his phone away. It was hard enough to reach his family back in Ireland with the time difference without someone on the hockey team interrupting. He tried to call his mom back but there was no answer. It wasn't even lunch yet and Rory was having a bad day.

Brittany was in Rory's next class, though. She could brighten his day. Brittany was the only person at McKinley who was nice to him. Rory supposed that made her his best friend, even if she thought he was a leprechaun.

Brittany was sitting next to a girl in a cheer leading uniform when Rory walked into the classroom. She smiled at him but he still didn't have anywhere to sit. There was an empty table in the back of the classroom. The bell rang. 'I'll just be alone in this class too…' Rory thought.

"You're late, Elissa." Rory heard the teacher say. He looked up to see a girl walking through the door.

"Sorry." She mumbled before making her way to the back of the room. She didn't look up from the floor until she was standing right next to the table Rory was sitting at. "This is where I sit." She said.

"I'm sorry!" Rory said. "I didn't know! I'm new! I could move but there aren't any open seats but I –"

"It's okay!" Elissa said with a small smile. "I was kidding." She let out a little laugh before sitting down next to him.

"Today, we will be starting a partner project. I would assign you all a partner but you would just switch to be with a friend anyways so go ahead and pick." The teacher said from the front of the room.

Rory looked to were Brittany was sitting but she seemed to be partners with the other cheer leader.

"Want to be my partner?" Elissa asked quietly, tapping him on the shoulder. Rory turned to look at her and saw her face was red, as if she was scared to ask.

"I would like to, thank you." Elissa smiled widely.

"So you're new, right?" Rory nodded. "What's your name?"

"Rory Flanagan. I'm an exchange student from Ireland." Rory could feel the smile the hockey player had taken reappearing on his face.

"An exchange student? How long are you going to be here?" The teacher placed a paper on the table in front of her and she smiled at him before turning her attention back to Rory.

"Just for this school year." She nodded and started reading over the assignment. "So what's the project?"

"Nothing too hard. We just have to make a poster about our favorite president. This school is big on posters, by the way. You'll probably make at least twenty by the end of the school year. We have to work on it outside of class though. My house okay?" Rory nodded.

The bell rang. Rory's smile faded as he realized his time talking to Elissa was over. She was nicer than anyone he had met so far.

"Do you think you could show me where my next class is?" Elissa took his schedule and read over it before giving him a look.

"You have lunch next. It's in the cafeteria. You can't miss it." She handed him his schedule and started gathering her stuff.

"Oh." Rory's face fell.

Elissa laughed just a little. "Come on. I have lunch next too. You can sit with me if you want."

"I do, thank you." Rory followed the girl out of the classroom and through the crowded hallways to the cafeteria. He got in line behind Elissa and tried to get some food before someone took it out of his hands.

"It takes a lot of skill to get food in this cafeteria." Elissa said. She took the serving spoon from someone's hand and scooped some food onto Rory's tray. She smiled at him. "Give it a week and you'll even be able to get some Jell-O." Rory laughed at Elissa and followed her to an empty table near the back of the lunch room.

"If you're so good at getting food then why do you only have an apple?" Rory asked.

"The food here is gross, I never eat it." Elissa answered. She took a big bite out of her apple. "So the poster isn't due for three weeks but we should probably get started on it now."

"Why?" Rory asked.

"We started the project now but only do, like, a fourth of the work. Then we procrastinate. Then, the day before the poster is due, we don't have to rush as much."

"Why don't we just do a third of the work every week? Then we never have to rush." Rory asked.

"I've never had a partner who actually wanted to do the project before. We can do that." Elissa tossed her apple core in a trash can and started walking towards the exit. "Coming?" Rory got up and followed after her. "How do you get home from school?"

"Brittany would drive me but she has cheer practice. I think I'm going to take the bus." Elissa made a face.

"The bus? Why would you do that? I'll drive you. We can work on the poster too." Elissa turned and faced him. "Meet me right here after school." Rory looked around trying to memorize where they were in the building. Down the hall from his locker. Next to a water fountain.

"Can I ask you a question, Elissa?" Rory asked. She nodded. "This is probably going to sound stupid but I can never tell and I just want to be sure that – "

"Just ask, Rory." Elissa interrupted.

"Are we… Friend?" Rory asked. He was never sure anymore. He thought he was friends with Chris, who lived next door to Brittany, but he had completely ignored Rory today.

"Do you want to be friends?" Rory nodded. "Then let's be friends!" Elissa smiled at him just as the bell rang. "After school, right here." She told him again.

"Bye, Elissa!" Rory called as his new friend turned and started weaving through the crowd.


End file.
